Study Finds That White Students Visit College Advisors the Least, but Benefit Most in Terms of Graduation Rates and GPA

A new study finds that White students visit academic advisors the least but have the highest academic benefits, in terms of GPA and graduation rates, compared to nonwhite students and international students.

In higher education, substantial gaps exist between White and nonwhite students, with a greater number of White students graduating in fewer years and receiving higher grades than many other groups. Prior research shows that nonwhite students are less likely to engage with faculty members, but there is a dearth of information related to interactions with academic advisors—staffers who provide guidance related to courses needed for graduation, resources, and career pathways.

“Academics, practitioners, and policymakers alike have purported that academic advising is a powerful mechanism to close some of these gaps and that marginalized students attend advising meetings the least. In many ways, we find the opposite of these arguments,” says Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, the study’s lead author, professor of international education, and vice dean for research and equity at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

Using 2017 to 2021 data from a US university with one of the largest undergraduate populations, Cherng and his co-authors analyzed student achievement (grades, graduation rates), demographics (race/ethnicity, income, international status, and first-generation status), and appointments with advisors. They evaluated outcomes for different demographic groups as well as differences within groups.

They found that nonwhite and international student groups (with the exception of students who identified their race as “other”) met with advisors more frequently than White students from the United States. Despite meeting with advisors more often, students of color received fewer benefits. For example, White students who had one advising meeting had roughly 0.05 point higher GPAs than their White peers who had no advising meetings, while there were no differences among Latine students. While many groups experienced GPA benefits to advising (with the exception of Latine students), graduation rates were only higher for White students.

In terms of social class, first-generation students were 7 percent less likely to meet with advisors and less likely to graduate than students whose parents attended college. There were no differences found in outcomes between low- and high-income students.

Their findings are published in Educational Researcher.

“Our study highlights the importance of advising: it does have an impact, but the question now should be for whom,” says Cherng. “Efforts should be paid to the substance of advising and how advisors work with different groups of students. Only in this way can advising fulfill its purpose as an equalizing force.”

This study is co-authored by Junhow Wei, assistant dean for studies, Princeton University, and Martha Moreno, postdoctoral fellow in the Steinhardt Department of Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities.

This study was funded by the Spencer Foundation.

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